Geelani claims ‘diplomatic win’, Mirwaiz holds India responsible

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Moderate Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq blamed India and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for the cancellation of talks. “Yet another opportunity lost by both the countries to engage with each other. The last nail in the coffin was put by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj when she made it clear that there will not be any talks on Kashmir. Instead of moving forward, we are only moving backwards,” he said.

Meanwhile, the government prevented Geelani-led Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH) from celebrating its foundation day. The police cracked down on Geelani’s supporters as they staged a sit-in against government curbs. Many were reportedly injured as police used force to break up the protest.

Later Hurriyat chairman Geelani, who is under house arrest, released a video on Youtube attacking the BJP-PDP government. “This is the worst form of fascism. Such bans or curbs would not become a hurdle for us in achieving our objectives,” said Geelani in his message.

Terming the police action as “state terrorism”, TeH said that the state government was being run by NSA Ajit Doval and the CM was a mere “spectator”.

“Before coming to power Mufti was talking about “goli nahin boli’ (dialogue instead of bullets). Now to remain in power, he has surrendered everything to New Delhi. The government here is run by (NSA) Doval now and Mufti is a mere spectator,” said TeH spokesman Ayaz Akbar. He warned that denying political space to the separatists might have serious consequences.